Taymyrethnoexp. Part II

March 21–29, 2011

We did it. For the first time in history, passenger cars with regular wheels have successfully made the journey to Norilsk from the east by land. The locals refused to believe it: every other car got here either by water or by air. Only trucks and ATVs manage to drive this far on their own, and even their occasional arrival is considered eventful.

Talnakh

This is Norilsk’s satellite city, where our descent from the mountains actually landed us.

The first thing that strikes the eye here is the incredible size of the snowbanks next to the buildings. It takes enough effort just to shovel the snow into piles. Getting rid of it is impossible.

Valves of some kind are purposely kept clear of snow.

As are various collectors.

Electrical cables are laid on top of special heavy-duty supports, which look like a small monorail.

The bottom floors are raised high above the ground here.

If a person is standing with some sense of purpose amidst the snow, it means we’re looking at a bus stop.

Pretty trash dumpsters stand at every apartment building entrance.

Norilsk has roads connecting it to nearby cities—about two hundred kilometers’ worth in total. As well as a railroad that goes to the port. But all of this is cut off from the rest of the world, so the locals refer to other places as “on the mainland.” People take a ship or plane to the mainland when they go on vacation.

We were also told that the roads to neighboring cities often get closed down due to heavy snow. There’s even a special phone number you can call for weather reports and information on road closures. And there are varying types of closures: sometimes roads are closed to passenger cars, but still open for buses and SUVs.

All this immediately made sense as soon as I drove outside the city. The road can turn into a sea of white in minutes. And you no longer have any idea if you’re on the road or already in a ditch.

Hope

Kayerkan

An anti-utopian city.

Creativity in Kayerkan: a bus stop in the shape of the letter A (the Russian word for “bus” is “avtobus”).

It’s always windy here.

If anyone ever feels tormented by depression, they should come to Kayerkan. They’ll immediately see just how un-depressed they really were before.

Alykel

This small town next to the airport was built by the military, but no one ever moved in. It turned out there was nowhere to dispose of sewage. And building a sewage treatment plant was going to be too much trouble.

The local airport even has jetways.

At the end of a work shift, the platform is packed with an orderly crowd of people waiting for the bus. The bus ride to the city takes almost an hour; no one wants to be standing the whole time. So it’s important to be in the front of the line and grab a seat. People act with purpose and precision.

My question about whether anyone gives up their seat to women uncovered an unexpected side of northern life. The bus for women comes an hour earlier because the workday for women is an hour shorter in the Far North.

Dudinka

Stress on the second syllable.

Sometimes you get to Dudinka and then don’t return for several days.

Caution. Snowfall, black ice, fog, blizzards. Snow removal machinery at work on the road. The Dudinka-Alykel road is closed.

Moor your heart, so to speak.

The city where hearts moor...

The buildings are rather poorly endowed in the canopy department—the canopies over the entrances are tiny.

Almost everyone has a basket attached outside their window for food storage. Norilsk is only a 40-minute drive away, but nothing like this exists there.

A bus shelter and grocery store in one.

In Dudinka, I found more examples of the “heavenly beauty” model of traffic light, which we’ve previously come across in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Achinsk.

The 21st century has arrived here.

21 century